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WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The West Chester men's and women's track and field programs are readying for their return to the track on Friday and Saturday of this weekend at the Fast Times Before Finals meet hosted by Lehigh University.
When West Chester returns to action on Friday at Lehigh, it will be the Golden Rams first indoor track and field competition as a team since March 1, 2020, at the PSAC Indoor Championships while also serving as the first indoor meet of Director of Track and Field and Cross Country
Melissa Ferry's tenure at the helm of the Golden Rams.
"The training has been going well so far this fall, so I am excited to see us compete," began Ferry. "A big part of this early season meet is going to be returning to the competitive mindset and structure of competition, down to the little things of making sure we are in the right headspace and ready to compete before our event even begins," continued Ferry.
At the end of the 2019-20 indoor season, the West Chester women's track and field team earned a second-place team finish at the PSAC Indoor Championships, while the West Chester men's track and field team turned in a strong performance of its own at the Championships.
"The second-place finish is certainly motivating as it shows what can be done and provides a legacy for our newer athletes to follow and live up to as they begin their Golden Ram careers," noted Ferry.
Ferry explained that this is a relatively new team from the 2019-20 indoor team with just a handful of competitors remaining, as many have since graduated. However, West Chester does return a few key pieces on both the men's and women's teams led by a trio of 2021 women's Outdoor Track and Field All-Region honorees in
Maddie James (York, Pa./York Suburban), Sarah Supplee (Orefield, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh), and
Corah Krantz (Mayfield, Pa./Lakeland).
"Earning All-Region honors during the 2021 outdoor season certainly helps the student-athletes set high expectations for themselves entering the new season. All three have a great work ethic as they try to repeat and improve upon those performances while also modeling that work ethic for the younger athletes to follow," explained Ferry.
James, Supplee, and Krantz are a few of just a handful of returning Golden Rams from the 2019-20 PSAC runner-up squad, with James and Krantz each recording top-three finishes in their respective events back in March of 2020.
On the men's side,
Orion Frazier (Roslyn, Pa./Abington), Chad Mowbray (Lancaster, Pa./Penn Manor), Nick Bower (Breinigsville, Pa./Parkland), and
William Rivers (Manheim, Pa./Manheim Central) highlight the returning group from the 2019-20 indoor season with Rivers and Frazier each registering impressive top-five finishes in March 2020.
During the 2021-22 indoor season, West Chester will have a rigorous competition schedule, squaring off against a host of Division I talent throughout the early part of the season. West Chester opens its year on Friday and Saturday at the Lehigh Fast Times meet inside Rauch Field House before venturing to Ocean Breeze in Staten Island for the Seahawk Shootout on December 10 in its final meet of the 2021 half of the schedule. West Chester will return to New York on Saturday, January 15
, at the TCNJ Indoor Invite, hosted inside the Armory in New York City, before traveling to the Penn State Invite in State College and the Gotham Cup inside Ocean Breeze on Friday, January 21. The Golden Rams will begin the month of February with their annual visit to the 21
st Annual DeSchriver Invitational on February 5 before heading to the Rutgers Indoor Invite back inside the Armory on February 11
th and 12
th. This will serve as a final tuneup for the Golden Rams before the PSAC Indoor Championships on February 26
th and 27
th, which Edinboro University will once again host.
"We will be in New York a few times this season with some good in-state meets mixed in," started Ferry when asked about the 2021-22 indoor schedule. "This variety of meets gives us a good chance to see competition outside the PSAC and challenge our athletes against people they are not so familiar with. This allows them to expand their goals and test themselves in unfamiliar waters early in the year. Once we start 2022, we will see some competition against PSAC schools so we can start to figure out where we stand prior to the Championship at the end of February. One of the great things about our sport is that we do not need to secure a conference record in advance of the Championships, so we can go and test ourselves against Division I competition to get that growth opportunity and then compete within our own state against PSAC schools-giving us the best of both worlds," explained Ferry.
The Golden Rams first-year Director and local product also expressed excitement to return to her hometown in this role in advance of her first meet, explaining, "It is great to be home and have the chance to lead a program in the town where I grew up. Chester County and Southeastern Pennsylvania as a whole is such a talented area and track and field-friendly space that this is a very exciting opportunity. The community wants to see success, and the school puts the resources in, so it is a great place to come back to and spring forward with the program into future successes, personal bests, and further program development," concluded Ferry.
Full coverage of the Golden Rams season-opening meet at Lehigh will be available on wcupagoldenrams.com and across social media on Saturday evening, while wcupagoldenrams.com will also remain your site for all the latest news and notes on the Golden Rams track and field programs all-season long.
